Movie Review: ‘Looper’

The trick for any time-travel movie is to make its sci-fi mumbo-jumbo fun without distracting from the story. In other words, the tail can't wag the dog — but it does need to keep him going in circles.

The antihero of the infinitely entertaining "Looper" knows his own circle will close someday. His name is Joe, and in 2044 he's a thirtyish thug (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) hired by a man from the future named Abe (Jeff Daniels). Joe is a "looper," an assassin whose skills are used by an evil government in the year 2074.

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How is that? Well, though time travel hasn't been invented yet in 2044, it is available three decades later. When someone needs to be killed in the future, to avoid mess they're zapped back to the past. There, in a cornfield, Joe waits with a gun and an antique watch until his victim appears. Then he shoots him.

Yet there's an expiration date for guys like Joe. When their older selves are time-traveled back to the cornfield to "close the loop," they pop up in front of their younger selves, gold bars taped to their backs as a payoff. (If they let their older selves go, Abe makes sure both versions start losing limbs simultaneously.)

It's here that writer-director Rian Johnson flips the deck in his action drama, and not for the last time. In a long montage, we see Joe age into a 60-year-old tough (played by Bruce Willis), who's left his violent past behind. Then we're back in 2044, as young Joe lifts his gun and pauses when he realizes his next victim is himself.

If that were all there was to "Looper," it'd be enough. But Johnson, in a nod to "The Terminator," adds another cool level. The old Joe tries to convince his younger self that the only way to avoid their shared fate — and save the woman they'll eventually love — is if they kill someone who in 30 years will develop a terrifying psychic power. But in 2044, their target is still a 5-year-old boy.

Bruce Willis plays the older version of a time-traveling assassin in ‘Looper.’

Yes, "Looper" stacks the deck, but if you hang with it, it hangs together. Johnson ("Brick") knows the storied history of this genre, so he makes sure there's heart as well as a sometimes overly busy head, especially in a subplot involving an unsuspecting bystander (Emily Blunt). As with last year's "Source Code," this is the rare action movie that rewards viewers who pay attention.

The one bit of attention that "Looper" may not want is the slightly odd makeup on Gordon-Levitt. Instead of resembling a younger Willis, the "Dark Knight Rises" actor looks like Burt Reynolds in "Gator."

But no matter. Gordon-Levitt is flinty, and Willis, on his A-game, is fiery. Together, they take us on a helluva trip.